September 12, 2008

From Stamps to Money to Manure (and Other News)

Brilliant bond specialist Bill Gross is auctioning off his British stamp collection on October 3 at the Spink Shreves Galleries, according to the Associated Press. Proceeds from the auction, which are expected to approach $1.5 million, will go to a Columbia University project for sending seeds and fertilizer to Africa. Thus does this act of philanthropy recapitulate the inversion of the classic progress of wealth accumulation, the wealth turning instantaneously from money to manure via the laundering vehicle of a major university.

In other news, the National Endowment for the Arts is funding construction of the biggest or at least the costliest poem in the nation's history, although the newspaper that broke the story -- The Onion -- mis-identifies NEA chairman Dana Gioia (pictured here) as "Mark Barnes" in the caption beneath the photo.The erroneous caption: "NEA chairman Mark Barnes announces the allocation of $45 million for additional dashes."

Comments

From Stamps to Money to Manure (and Other News)

Brilliant bond specialist Bill Gross is auctioning off his British stamp collection on October 3 at the Spink Shreves Galleries, according to the Associated Press. Proceeds from the auction, which are expected to approach $1.5 million, will go to a Columbia University project for sending seeds and fertilizer to Africa. Thus does this act of philanthropy recapitulate the inversion of the classic progress of wealth accumulation, the wealth turning instantaneously from money to manure via the laundering vehicle of a major university.

In other news, the National Endowment for the Arts is funding construction of the biggest or at least the costliest poem in the nation's history, although the newspaper that broke the story -- The Onion -- mis-identifies NEA chairman Dana Gioia (pictured here) as "Mark Barnes" in the caption beneath the photo.The erroneous caption: "NEA chairman Mark Barnes announces the allocation of $45 million for additional dashes."